10 ms·

The last Howard Johnson's restaurant closes in Lake George, N.Y.

119 points by NaOH 4y ago

Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
> In his book “Ten Restaurants That Changed America,” historian Paul Freedman credited the company with pioneering “several key concepts in the American way of dining out: roadside locations, a family-friendly ambience, franchising, predictability and serving comfort food long before that term was invented.” This, incidentally, is a superb book. I greatly enjoyed it and I’m not even American.
- jhap 4y ago
  I second the book rec, I thought it would be fairly predictable and lame, but it turned out to be completely awesome.
- anyfoo 4y ago
  That honestly sounds like exactly the things that annoy me, those chain restaurants and franchises with always the same audience and food. Visiting is equivalent to going to a FedEx: You know what to expect, but you don't go there for pleasure. That's good and expected for fast food (i.e. McDonald's), but fast food is something you do on the go: Using drive through or picking up, or when I was younger sitting in only transitionally with my friends to gulp down the fast food in the middle of our night out. Luckily at least in the cities there are still a wide variety of individual restaurants, often better than where I'm from, especially (but not exclusively) if it comes to non-local cuisine. The chains take up space but they are still easy enough to ignore.
  - Tostino 4y ago
    What you are looking for in a restaurant is not the same as everyone else. There are plenty of people who are more than happy to have their same comfortable meal over and over, these places are catering to those folk. Repeat business is better for profitability than always having to acquire new customers, and this model encourages that repeat business for the customers that it fits well with.
    - anyfoo 4y ago
      I guess I don't understand why that needs chains. In the parts of Europe that I am originally from, there are far less chain restaurants than here. And as I hinted, it's still pretty common for folks to have "their" restaurant in the neighborhood and to eat there all the time, same food or not. Maybe mixing it up some time with another restaurant, maybe not.
      - Tostino 4y ago
        I don't honestly think it's necessary by any means, and don't personally like them. But they do eek our their existence through appealing to the "familiar" for their customers, because no matter where you're at, you know X will taste like home. I don't personally subscribe to that, i'd much rather see what a new place has to offer, but i'm not everyone.
        anyfoo 4y ago
        Ah, I think I can understand that aspect (even though it also does not fit me personally).
      - throw7 4y ago
        You're right... it doesn't need "chains". "Chinese" restaurants fill the same needs. I think maybe even "Mexican" restaurants do to some degree also. I'm not familiar with Europe, but in my limited travels, "doner kebab" shops kind of seem to fill the same niche.
        monkeybutton 4y ago
        Pho. I know exactly what to expect and what I want to order walking into any Pho restaurant in the country and they're all owned and operated by different people.
        Spooky23 4y ago
        Maybe not. Many Asian restaurants use unique, exclusive suppliers. I don’t know about Pho places, but many neighborhood Chinese restaurants are really outposts of a fully vertically integrated enterprise. Even vegetables come from specific farms in Central America and have a distinct supply chain.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    The popular situation in which someone would go to one of these restaurants is this: It's 1975 in America. You're on a family road trip. It's hot, you've been driving all day, and you've got two whiny kids in the back seat. Everyone is getting hangry, and you need somewhere comfortable to pause. You want somewhere where you can sit, get something that the kids will eat without fuss, and maybe an ice cream would be nice. The obvious answer is Howard Johnson. Drive throughs didn't exist at this time, and even if they did, you wanted to get out of the damn car anyway.
    - anyfoo 4y ago
      Thanks. As mentioned elsewhere, I did not know that aspect of "roadside restaurants". It makes sense as a "pit stop" kind of thing with families, and seems to fill a similar role to the big gas station+restaurant combinations you find along the Autobahn for example. Another aspect is that if in Europe you've been driving for 8 hours, you may well have crossed a country border (or multiple), and everything is very different anyway. McDonald's again being your best bet if you want anything really predictable in that case (and you can even order without speaking the language usually).
      - kube-system 4y ago
        The road-trip culture in the US has spawned all kinds of interesting business models that make little sense out of context. My favorite example is Breezewood Pennsylvania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breezewood,_Pennsylvania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breezewood,_Pennsylvania It's a "town" that almost nobody lives in. It exists solely because of a poorly-conceived connection between two major highways. Millions of people stop to get gasoline, food, use the restroom, or stop at a hotel there just because they have to stop anyway at two stop lights. There's no reason the highways couldn't be directly connected today, but local lawmakers would never allow this because it would destroy their only economic purpose.
        kstrauser 4y ago
        If you've never been to Little America, you haven't lived. https://wyoming.littleamerica.com https://wyoming.littleamerica.com
  - wdb 4y ago
    When I grew up McDonald's was something for birthday parties or special occasions not really drive through, you went there with the goal to eat :)
    - SoftTalker 4y ago
      Yeah. McDonald's didn't have drive-thrus when I was a kid. My mom would take me there once or twice a year and it was always a highlight. I would always get a happy meal with an orange drink. I loved their orange drink.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
    > those chain restaurants and franchises with always the same audience and food. Visiting is equivalent to going to ... a teleportation booth, according to an amusing (or terrifying) SF story from decades ago. You could come out in any other location served by the franchise. Homogenized spacetime mumble handwave ... Sorry, forgot whodunnit. Maybe Analog magazine around 1990.
    - Throw6away 4y ago
      Larry Niven. It’s a theme of his collection “A Hole In Space”, about the social impact of teleportation booths.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    That’s exactly what I want - to know what I’m going to get. When I travel for business and now that my wife and I are traveling more for leisure, we look for an Embassy Suites. We know we are going to get a two room suite, a decent breakfast, a nice happy hour every day and good customer service. We did the AirBnb once. While it was definitely a decently nice place, we missed the gym, cleaning, restaurant downstairs, easy access by Uber (we were in a gated community), etc. In fact, my wife and I are planning to be digital nomads for the next couple of years starting later this year. We will definitely be staying in Hilton chains - Embassy, Homewood, or Home2Suites - we will be comfortable and the two room suites give me a place to work. Not to mention the side benefits of points you can rack up with the cobranded card. Other brands may be as good, Hilton is just what I’m familiar with.
- surge 4y ago
  Cracker Barrel essentially fills this niche now.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    I'd throw Denny's, IHOP, and Applebees into the same category.
    - jxf 4y ago
      I don't think Applebee's is in there -- a bit too corporate. But I'd put Waffle House in for their place.
      - justbaker 4y ago
        Waffle House is a billion times better than Applebees. They Cook the food in front of you versus microwaving some frozen shit. AND it’s open 365 24/7 pretty much even when there’s inclement weather. I always know what to expect… the hash browns are the best shredded hash browns around. Applebees is a dying company only popular in smaller areas.
        Aloha 4y ago
        Waffle House is the most underrated chain in America. It's the same food you'd cook at home, but for only slightly more.
        justbaker 4y ago
        I’m still struggling to get my hash browns the same quality. Better than denny’s/ihop hash browns but Waffle House sets a high bar for those.
  - nsxwolf 4y ago
    I was just at a Cracker Barrel in Wisconsin and it seemed like there was a lot of cost cutting going on. I miss the days when we’d all complain about gigantic portions in American restaurants.
- rmason 4y ago
  When I was growing up Howard Johnson's were everywhere. Their hotels were in every mid-size town as well. In the mid seventies there were over 500 hotels and 1000 restaurants. Just like Sears Roebuck it was classic Americana and you could easily make the assumption that it would be there forever, but by the year 2000 it had mostly disappeared. I admit to not knowing why. Their hotels weren't anything remarkable but the restaurants were special. Perhaps tastes changed and once the restaurants retreated the hotels followed.
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  - donthellbanme 4y ago
    - ChoGGi 4y ago
      I suppose it's okay to complain about foreign investors owning residences, but not businesses?
      - SantalBlush 4y ago
        tamaharbor 4y ago
        Applejinx 4y ago
        You might be pushing a narrative, not the truth. If restaurants in general are on such margins that behaving badly is the only way to keep them in the black and immigrants are capable of spotting this as quickly as native citizens or more so, then what you're observing is capitalism crowding out good places and replacing them with garbage, and immigrants gambling on the prospect of taking failing places and making them succeed in the only feasible way. If you then take this situation and spin it as wicked immigrants ruining everything, you're in the wrong and pushing a narrative for your own purposes. There are analogous situations in the context of inner-city crime and whether that's down to racial or economic drivers, and people who ignore economic drivers to attribute everything to easily spotted racial signifiers. Pushing a narrative.
- deleted 4y ago
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AlbertCory 4y ago
I can't get too nostalgic on this one, sorry. But speaking of upstate New York: the fact that you can stay in Big Pink [1], where Dylan and The Band stayed and / or recorded -- that would be something. [1] https://www.vrbo.com/3970069ha https://www.vrbo.com/3970069ha
js2 4y ago
My dad used to take me to one in Miami. For their fried clams and Butter Crunch ice cream. https://losttables.com/hojos/hojos.htm https://losttables.com/hojos/hojos.htm The last one closed in 2017 though. Even though a restaurant remained in the Lake George location, it wasn't operating as Howard Johnson's, per the article. It's sorta like how Voyager keeps leaving the solar system, I guess?
- MrMan 4y ago
  The one on US1 was still there until recently iirc
  - js2 4y ago
    I’m pretty sure it’s been gone for at least two decades. This article written in 2005 already mentions it having been closed and operated as Terrace Inn. After that the whole site was torn down and rebuilt as an office building. https://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/051201/story4.shtml https://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/051201/story4.shtml http://www.highwayhost.org/Florida/MiamiArea/CoralGables/coralgables1.htm http://www.highwayhost.org/Florida/MiamiArea/CoralGables/cor...
mbreese 4y ago
https://archive.ph/jELUf https://archive.ph/jELUf
jpm_sd 4y ago
I really enjoyed Jacques Pepin's autobiography and was surprised to discover that working at Howard Johnson's was a major, formative experience in his life. https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/apprentice-my https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/apprentice-my https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/opinion/howard-johnsons-adieu.html https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/opinion/howard-johnsons-a...
- dharmon 4y ago
  I just read this and also really enjoyed it. Pépin heaps praise on Howard Johnson (the person), and has no kind words for his son, whom he blames for the restaurant’s decline. Mainly lack of adaptability as fast food hit the country, but then also drastically cutting quality in ingredients. Pépin claims that he would take home frozen restaurant food (as it was shipped to the restaurants), reheat it, and serve it to his NYC “foodie” friends, including renowned French chefs, without them being able to tell. I actually believe this since most of the pre-prepared food were stocks and sauce bases which freeze just fine, and also take the most time to prepare.
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  - Balgair 4y ago
    Aside: Holy crap, are those french sauces hard to prep at home. During lock downs I got into french sauces. The mother sauces, specifically the fond brun, are quite time consuming to make. I'm talking 2-3 days worth of time. I mean, the pay off is amazing. I've had guests literally licking the china. But my lord, is it hard to do. If anyone out there is looking to really up their cooking game but not also spend days in the kitchen, I recommend this: https://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Gourmet-16-Ounce-Packages/dp/B0010OOL46/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=brown+stock&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Gourmet-16-Ounce-Packages/d... It's not as good as home made, but it's ~85% the way there, 90% with filtered tap water (in my experience). Do be careful with a demi glace though, you do need to get their product for that. Just trying to reduce the water by half for the fond brun and calling it demi glace doesn't taste the same, at least to me.
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chasil 4y ago
Howard Johnson's had fried clams, did not know that. While I find fried clams repulsive, my secretary loves them, especially in her home state of New Hampshire. I found them at Red Lobster a few years ago, and insisted that she try them because she complained so much. She admitted they were quite good, but there were no "bellies" (a particularly repellent portion of the dish). I hope she liked HoJo's while it lasted.
- ghaff 4y ago
  There are clam strips and fried whole belly clams. The latter are definitely better but you apparently don't like clams in general. That said, as I get older I find most deep fried things are better not deep fried so I'll pretty much take steamers (steamed clams) by preference these days.
  - Tostino 4y ago
    Yup, will go for steamed over fried seafood any day of the week...unless there are good fish and chips around.
    - euroderf 4y ago
      I propose a clams v oysters debate. Cos oysters are magnificently tastier.
    - abrugsch 4y ago
      Living in the UK, of the 3 I only get access to good (and bad) fish and chips. I used to live in the Boston area and fried clams or steamers were a particular thing my dad used to go nuts for. I loved them too and miss them dearly. I had no idea that HoJo's sold them. In fact I think I only remember going to a HoJo's once in my life
      - ghaff 4y ago
        Mussels are a reasonable alternative to steamed clams and I've had those on a number of occasions in London. Not sure how available they are more broadly.
dpedu 4y ago
That's too bad. I have fond memories of my 5th grade math teacher taking me there many times for ice cream because she used that as a reward for whoever had the best grades that week, or something like that. Oh well.
- giantg2 4y ago
  I imagine that sort of reward would not take place today.
  - sumthinprofound 4y ago
    In high school teachers would take me to their house on my lunch break to fix their home computer then buy me a steak and cheese on the way back to school. Definitely some red flags there.
    - SoftTalker 4y ago
      When I was about 15 (this was in the 1980s) I had been hanging out at a local computer shop, trying to figure out what I might want to buy for my hard-earned paper route and lawn-mowing money. The shop owner, who I would guess was in his 30s, offered to drive me to the next larger city to look at some stuff that he could not get for some reason. On the way there (or maybe on the way back) he took me to White Castle for food. We didn't have a White Castle and he really liked their food. I guess you might say there were red flags there, but he didn't do anything remotely weird, then or later. He was apparently just wanting to help out a kid who was interested in the same stuff he was. Nowadays I don't think anyone would dare.
  - me_me_mu_mu 4y ago
    Teacher will buy a NFT or Fortnite skin
ars 4y ago
Sears and K-Mart are working on it: https://brostocks.com/2021/11/20/how-many-sears-stores-are-left/ https://brostocks.com/2021/11/20/how-many-sears-stores-are-l... and https://brostocks.com/2022/04/28/how-many-kmarts-are-left-in-the-united-states/ https://brostocks.com/2022/04/28/how-many-kmarts-are-left-in...
- lapetitejort 4y ago
  Somewhat related, I know of a Woolworth's that has been untouched since its closing in the 90s in a tourist city somewhere on the East Coast. I toured it by myself after a store owner friend gave me a key to the basement. I wanted to enjoy it more, but the constant dread of getting caught overwhelmed the fascination of this thirty year old time capsule.
  - moistly 4y ago
    Last time I was there, there was a Woolworth’s in Puerto Vallarta old town. Quite the surprise!
WorldPeas 4y ago
I guess that location they opened in space back in 2001 really bankrupted them
tuckerpo 4y ago
I visited Lake George at the end of 2021 and the Howard Johnson restaurant was a tourist attraction, for some reason. Bummer to see it die.
O__________O 4y ago
Property is now listed for the unlikely price of $10... :) https://exitrealtyempireassociates.com/listing/nyenyrmls202131243/2143_ROUTE_9__Lake_George__NY_12845/of-2898 https://exitrealtyempireassociates.com/listing/nyenyrmls2021...
- iod 4y ago
  Per the article, it's $10 per foot² of space leased. So I am guessing that to lease the whole place it would therefore be 7500ft² * $10-per-ft²-per-year / 12 months-per-year = $6250/month .
mooreds 4y ago
Here's a website devoted to Howard Johnsons: http://www.hojoland.com/ http://www.hojoland.com/
fredcy 4y ago
Going to the Howard Johnson's (in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) in the late 60's was a big treat for my family. Their fried clams were exotic fare.
LeoPanthera 4y ago
I guess they will not be able to open the "Howard Johnson's Earthlight Room" on an orbiting space station as predicted by 2001: A Space Odyssey, after all. https://georgehahn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2001-space-station-large.jpg https://georgehahn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2001-space... (The "Bell System Picturephone" is also looking pretty unlikely.)
- B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
  (Watched the original Kubrick movie when it was released. Thumb my nose at StarWars peasants ;-) Ah, well, the future isn't what it used to be. At least we didn't get nuked yet, a distinct possibility at the time.
  - russellendicott 4y ago
    In my teens I spent a whole paycheck on the Stanley Kubrick DVD box set. In hindsight this was dumb but then again all of the films are amazing. The set: Stanley Kubrick Collection (Lolita / Dr. Strangelove / 2001: A Space Odyssey / A Clockwork Orange / Barry Lyndon / The Shining / Full Metal Jacket) https://www.amazon.com/dp/6305440093/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_4XQ999X4XZC1T0K6HY3N?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/6305440093/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_4XQ9...
    - euroderf 4y ago
      Be sure to check his old B&W film about the racetrack heist.
- sritchie 4y ago
  Wait, the Bell Picturephone was real! https://ethw.org/Picturephone https://ethw.org/Picturephone I had known for years that my grandpa Alistair Ritchie worked on this at the Labs, but the book “The Idea Factory” colored in the story with great detail on how advanced the system was AND how few units they ever sold. Everyone wanted to see the other party, but no one wanted to be broadcast. One Bell exec iirc planted a headshot of himself in front of the camera.
hojothrowaway 4y ago
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- throw7 4y ago
  Thank you for sharing. Wish I could say I had a story to share, but I lived a pretty sheltered youth. I do remember it being called "Ho Joes" by everyone back then.
- Dracophoenix 4y ago
  If you wouldn't mind my asking, do you happen to know where HoJos sourced its ice cream from? Did HoJos really make those 28 flavors or simply slap a label on some other creamery's work? Also, if you can you should totally do a Reddit AMA. It's stories like your grandfather's I find interesting.
  - boomboomsubban 4y ago
    From reading the Wikipedia article, at least in the 60's they made them and the recipe's recently sold on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/374001062181?nma=true&si=uMabXVBJXpwvmkGXfToIJMqLn2w%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 https://www.ebay.com/itm/374001062181?nma=true&si=uMabXVBJXp...
russdill 4y ago
Now, finally, the other Howard Johnson of high speed digital design fame can get his due.
runnr_az 4y ago
It’ll be back as a ghost kitchen
sizzzzlerz 4y ago
Back in the 60's, our family took extensive road trips during summer vacation, our dad taking the tribe on cross-country adventures towing a vacation trailer behind our Travelall. Two things I remember seeing all over the country were a Stuckey's restaurant/store and Howard Johnson's. Being kids, we would constantly whine about stopping at them when we passed by but we never did. Since we stayed in the trailer, we didn't need hotel rooms, and we generally ate our meals in the trailer, as well. Now, they're just dusty memories of those idyllic times long ago.
- me_me_mu_mu 4y ago
  Thanks for sharing, enjoyed reading about your perspective.
chiefalchemist 4y ago
Hopefully The History Channel will add a chapter to "The Food That Built America."
lesgobrandon 4y ago
shagie 4y ago
I've got trouble placing a year on this, it was the early 80s. Lets call it '82 or '83 (I remember Burger Time video game). My grandparents took me to Washington DC and due to a mix up with the reservations for hotel rooms, the travel agency put us in the Watergate Hotel. For an about 10 year old, the hotel restaurant at the Watergate was a bit too fancy. Across the street (looking at Google maps - and https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9000541,-77.0557682,3a,68.9y,31.24h,93.2t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1stQ5JMiEJ5TnHQxlnXuS9Wg!2e0!5s20070801T000000!7i3328!8i1664 https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9000541,-77.0557682,3a,68.9y... looks about right), was a Howard Johnsons which was indeed a place where a 10 year old boy could get food without problem. (later edit: yep - that's it - https://www.flickr.com/photos/edge_and_corner_wear/9728171994 https://www.flickr.com/photos/edge_and_corner_wear/972817199... ) The food that I likely wouldn't have ate (as a picky eater) but my grandmother had me try before she told me what they were was the fried clams. https://www.thefooddictator.com/howard-johnsons-fried-clams/ https://www.thefooddictator.com/howard-johnsons-fried-clams/ I turned out I actually liked them and so had them each time I went there on that trip. https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2016/09/30/howard-johnsons-fried-clams https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2016/09/30/howard-johnso... An article about that last Howard Johnsons - https://www.eater.com/2017/2/14/14601970/last-howard-johnsons-lake-george-new-york https://www.eater.com/2017/2/14/14601970/last-howard-johnson... From that article... > There are some days, like when a previous Howard Johnson’s owner drives to Lake George just to shake LaRock’s hand and wish him luck, or when a couple arrive from New Jersey just to eat fried clams at a linoleum HoJo’s counter again, when none of that feels important. There are other days, however, when LaRock tries to predict the weather while waiting for tour buses full of French-Canadians, and in those moments, and it feels like he is the captain, first mate, and chief steward of a ship that’s already sunk.
MisterBastahrd 4y ago
I vividly remember the first time I was spoiled by a family member at a restaurant. I was 8 years old, in Houston to go to Astroworld, and over the protests of my parents, my grandmother bought me a large chocolate shake at a Howard Johnson's. I had never been in a restaurant with actual tables to sit down and eat before, and I wouldn't experience it again until I was being honored by the plant manager at my dad's employer my senior year of high school for receiving a national merit scholarship.
- 2b3a51 4y ago
  Your memory has got me thinking. Eating out wasn't common in my childhood in the 1960s in the UK. My memories of sit-down meals at locations outside the house are mainly the Christmas dinners that the Marconi Marine branch in Liverpool organised for employees, and the summer trips that sort of happened based at school (double decker buses arrived, took us all out to somewhere like Blackpool or Loggerheads in Wales, and there was always a fish and chip sitdown when it was time to come back). And school dinners of course after around 1970 when I went to the big school which was further away. Things opened up a bit in the 1970s and 1980s. I think it is a reflection of growing real disposable income, more restaurants and the cheaper chains opening.
jhallenworld 4y ago
Here is a nice nostalgic video about them: "Howard Johnson Restaurants - Life in America" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbNvT0vxrzM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbNvT0vxrzM
beebeepka 4y ago
Huh. I've only heard of this chain in Futurama. Next you'll tell me Fishy Joe's real as well

119 points by NaOH 4y ago

> In his book “Ten Restaurants That Changed America,” historian Paul Freedman credited the company with pioneering “several key concepts in the American way of dining out: roadside locations, a family-friendly ambience, franchising, predictability and serving comfort food long before that term was invented.” This, incidentally, is a superb book. I greatly enjoyed it and I’m not even American.

jhap 4y ago
I second the book rec, I thought it would be fairly predictable and lame, but it turned out to be completely awesome.
anyfoo 4y ago
That honestly sounds like exactly the things that annoy me, those chain restaurants and franchises with always the same audience and food. Visiting is equivalent to going to a FedEx: You know what to expect, but you don't go there for pleasure. That's good and expected for fast food (i.e. McDonald's), but fast food is something you do on the go: Using drive through or picking up, or when I was younger sitting in only transitionally with my friends to gulp down the fast food in the middle of our night out. Luckily at least in the cities there are still a wide variety of individual restaurants, often better than where I'm from, especially (but not exclusively) if it comes to non-local cuisine. The chains take up space but they are still easy enough to ignore.
- Tostino 4y ago
  What you are looking for in a restaurant is not the same as everyone else. There are plenty of people who are more than happy to have their same comfortable meal over and over, these places are catering to those folk. Repeat business is better for profitability than always having to acquire new customers, and this model encourages that repeat business for the customers that it fits well with.
  - anyfoo 4y ago
    I guess I don't understand why that needs chains. In the parts of Europe that I am originally from, there are far less chain restaurants than here. And as I hinted, it's still pretty common for folks to have "their" restaurant in the neighborhood and to eat there all the time, same food or not. Maybe mixing it up some time with another restaurant, maybe not.
    - Tostino 4y ago
      I don't honestly think it's necessary by any means, and don't personally like them. But they do eek our their existence through appealing to the "familiar" for their customers, because no matter where you're at, you know X will taste like home. I don't personally subscribe to that, i'd much rather see what a new place has to offer, but i'm not everyone.
      - anyfoo 4y ago
        Ah, I think I can understand that aspect (even though it also does not fit me personally).
    - throw7 4y ago
      You're right... it doesn't need "chains". "Chinese" restaurants fill the same needs. I think maybe even "Mexican" restaurants do to some degree also. I'm not familiar with Europe, but in my limited travels, "doner kebab" shops kind of seem to fill the same niche.
      - monkeybutton 4y ago
        Pho. I know exactly what to expect and what I want to order walking into any Pho restaurant in the country and they're all owned and operated by different people.
        Spooky23 4y ago
        Maybe not. Many Asian restaurants use unique, exclusive suppliers. I don’t know about Pho places, but many neighborhood Chinese restaurants are really outposts of a fully vertically integrated enterprise. Even vegetables come from specific farms in Central America and have a distinct supply chain.
- kube-system 4y ago
  The popular situation in which someone would go to one of these restaurants is this: It's 1975 in America. You're on a family road trip. It's hot, you've been driving all day, and you've got two whiny kids in the back seat. Everyone is getting hangry, and you need somewhere comfortable to pause. You want somewhere where you can sit, get something that the kids will eat without fuss, and maybe an ice cream would be nice. The obvious answer is Howard Johnson. Drive throughs didn't exist at this time, and even if they did, you wanted to get out of the damn car anyway.
  - anyfoo 4y ago
    Thanks. As mentioned elsewhere, I did not know that aspect of "roadside restaurants". It makes sense as a "pit stop" kind of thing with families, and seems to fill a similar role to the big gas station+restaurant combinations you find along the Autobahn for example. Another aspect is that if in Europe you've been driving for 8 hours, you may well have crossed a country border (or multiple), and everything is very different anyway. McDonald's again being your best bet if you want anything really predictable in that case (and you can even order without speaking the language usually).
    - kube-system 4y ago
      The road-trip culture in the US has spawned all kinds of interesting business models that make little sense out of context. My favorite example is Breezewood Pennsylvania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breezewood,_Pennsylvania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breezewood,_Pennsylvania It's a "town" that almost nobody lives in. It exists solely because of a poorly-conceived connection between two major highways. Millions of people stop to get gasoline, food, use the restroom, or stop at a hotel there just because they have to stop anyway at two stop lights. There's no reason the highways couldn't be directly connected today, but local lawmakers would never allow this because it would destroy their only economic purpose.
      - kstrauser 4y ago
        If you've never been to Little America, you haven't lived. https://wyoming.littleamerica.com https://wyoming.littleamerica.com
- wdb 4y ago
  When I grew up McDonald's was something for birthday parties or special occasions not really drive through, you went there with the goal to eat :)
  - SoftTalker 4y ago
    Yeah. McDonald's didn't have drive-thrus when I was a kid. My mom would take me there once or twice a year and it was always a highlight. I would always get a happy meal with an orange drink. I loved their orange drink.
- B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
  > those chain restaurants and franchises with always the same audience and food. Visiting is equivalent to going to ... a teleportation booth, according to an amusing (or terrifying) SF story from decades ago. You could come out in any other location served by the franchise. Homogenized spacetime mumble handwave ... Sorry, forgot whodunnit. Maybe Analog magazine around 1990.
  - Throw6away 4y ago
    Larry Niven. It’s a theme of his collection “A Hole In Space”, about the social impact of teleportation booths.
- scarface74 4y ago
  That’s exactly what I want - to know what I’m going to get. When I travel for business and now that my wife and I are traveling more for leisure, we look for an Embassy Suites. We know we are going to get a two room suite, a decent breakfast, a nice happy hour every day and good customer service. We did the AirBnb once. While it was definitely a decently nice place, we missed the gym, cleaning, restaurant downstairs, easy access by Uber (we were in a gated community), etc. In fact, my wife and I are planning to be digital nomads for the next couple of years starting later this year. We will definitely be staying in Hilton chains - Embassy, Homewood, or Home2Suites - we will be comfortable and the two room suites give me a place to work. Not to mention the side benefits of points you can rack up with the cobranded card. Other brands may be as good, Hilton is just what I’m familiar with.
surge 4y ago
Cracker Barrel essentially fills this niche now.
- kube-system 4y ago
  I'd throw Denny's, IHOP, and Applebees into the same category.
  - jxf 4y ago
    I don't think Applebee's is in there -- a bit too corporate. But I'd put Waffle House in for their place.
    - justbaker 4y ago
      Waffle House is a billion times better than Applebees. They Cook the food in front of you versus microwaving some frozen shit. AND it’s open 365 24/7 pretty much even when there’s inclement weather. I always know what to expect… the hash browns are the best shredded hash browns around. Applebees is a dying company only popular in smaller areas.
      - Aloha 4y ago
        Waffle House is the most underrated chain in America. It's the same food you'd cook at home, but for only slightly more.
        justbaker 4y ago
        I’m still struggling to get my hash browns the same quality. Better than denny’s/ihop hash browns but Waffle House sets a high bar for those.
- nsxwolf 4y ago
  I was just at a Cracker Barrel in Wisconsin and it seemed like there was a lot of cost cutting going on. I miss the days when we’d all complain about gigantic portions in American restaurants.
rmason 4y ago
When I was growing up Howard Johnson's were everywhere. Their hotels were in every mid-size town as well. In the mid seventies there were over 500 hotels and 1000 restaurants. Just like Sears Roebuck it was classic Americana and you could easily make the assumption that it would be there forever, but by the year 2000 it had mostly disappeared. I admit to not knowing why. Their hotels weren't anything remarkable but the restaurants were special. Perhaps tastes changed and once the restaurants retreated the hotels followed.
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- donthellbanme 4y ago
  - ChoGGi 4y ago
    I suppose it's okay to complain about foreign investors owning residences, but not businesses?
    - SantalBlush 4y ago
      - tamaharbor 4y ago
        Applejinx 4y ago
        You might be pushing a narrative, not the truth. If restaurants in general are on such margins that behaving badly is the only way to keep them in the black and immigrants are capable of spotting this as quickly as native citizens or more so, then what you're observing is capitalism crowding out good places and replacing them with garbage, and immigrants gambling on the prospect of taking failing places and making them succeed in the only feasible way. If you then take this situation and spin it as wicked immigrants ruining everything, you're in the wrong and pushing a narrative for your own purposes. There are analogous situations in the context of inner-city crime and whether that's down to racial or economic drivers, and people who ignore economic drivers to attribute everything to easily spotted racial signifiers. Pushing a narrative.
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AlbertCory 4y ago

I can't get too nostalgic on this one, sorry. But speaking of upstate New York: the fact that you can stay in Big Pink [1], where Dylan and The Band stayed and / or recorded -- that would be something. [1] https://www.vrbo.com/3970069ha https://www.vrbo.com/3970069ha

js2 4y ago

My dad used to take me to one in Miami. For their fried clams and Butter Crunch ice cream. https://losttables.com/hojos/hojos.htm https://losttables.com/hojos/hojos.htm The last one closed in 2017 though. Even though a restaurant remained in the Lake George location, it wasn't operating as Howard Johnson's, per the article. It's sorta like how Voyager keeps leaving the solar system, I guess?

MrMan 4y ago
The one on US1 was still there until recently iirc
- js2 4y ago
  I’m pretty sure it’s been gone for at least two decades. This article written in 2005 already mentions it having been closed and operated as Terrace Inn. After that the whole site was torn down and rebuilt as an office building. https://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/051201/story4.shtml https://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/051201/story4.shtml http://www.highwayhost.org/Florida/MiamiArea/CoralGables/coralgables1.htm http://www.highwayhost.org/Florida/MiamiArea/CoralGables/cor...

mbreese 4y ago

https://archive.ph/jELUf https://archive.ph/jELUf

jpm_sd 4y ago

I really enjoyed Jacques Pepin's autobiography and was surprised to discover that working at Howard Johnson's was a major, formative experience in his life. https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/apprentice-my https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/apprentice-my https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/opinion/howard-johnsons-adieu.html https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/opinion/howard-johnsons-a...

dharmon 4y ago
I just read this and also really enjoyed it. Pépin heaps praise on Howard Johnson (the person), and has no kind words for his son, whom he blames for the restaurant’s decline. Mainly lack of adaptability as fast food hit the country, but then also drastically cutting quality in ingredients. Pépin claims that he would take home frozen restaurant food (as it was shipped to the restaurants), reheat it, and serve it to his NYC “foodie” friends, including renowned French chefs, without them being able to tell. I actually believe this since most of the pre-prepared food were stocks and sauce bases which freeze just fine, and also take the most time to prepare.
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- Balgair 4y ago
  Aside: Holy crap, are those french sauces hard to prep at home. During lock downs I got into french sauces. The mother sauces, specifically the fond brun, are quite time consuming to make. I'm talking 2-3 days worth of time. I mean, the pay off is amazing. I've had guests literally licking the china. But my lord, is it hard to do. If anyone out there is looking to really up their cooking game but not also spend days in the kitchen, I recommend this: https://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Gourmet-16-Ounce-Packages/dp/B0010OOL46/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=brown+stock&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Gourmet-16-Ounce-Packages/d... It's not as good as home made, but it's ~85% the way there, 90% with filtered tap water (in my experience). Do be careful with a demi glace though, you do need to get their product for that. Just trying to reduce the water by half for the fond brun and calling it demi glace doesn't taste the same, at least to me.

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chasil 4y ago

Howard Johnson's had fried clams, did not know that. While I find fried clams repulsive, my secretary loves them, especially in her home state of New Hampshire. I found them at Red Lobster a few years ago, and insisted that she try them because she complained so much. She admitted they were quite good, but there were no "bellies" (a particularly repellent portion of the dish). I hope she liked HoJo's while it lasted.

ghaff 4y ago
There are clam strips and fried whole belly clams. The latter are definitely better but you apparently don't like clams in general. That said, as I get older I find most deep fried things are better not deep fried so I'll pretty much take steamers (steamed clams) by preference these days.
- Tostino 4y ago
  Yup, will go for steamed over fried seafood any day of the week...unless there are good fish and chips around.
  - euroderf 4y ago
    I propose a clams v oysters debate. Cos oysters are magnificently tastier.
  - abrugsch 4y ago
    Living in the UK, of the 3 I only get access to good (and bad) fish and chips. I used to live in the Boston area and fried clams or steamers were a particular thing my dad used to go nuts for. I loved them too and miss them dearly. I had no idea that HoJo's sold them. In fact I think I only remember going to a HoJo's once in my life
    - ghaff 4y ago
      Mussels are a reasonable alternative to steamed clams and I've had those on a number of occasions in London. Not sure how available they are more broadly.

dpedu 4y ago

That's too bad. I have fond memories of my 5th grade math teacher taking me there many times for ice cream because she used that as a reward for whoever had the best grades that week, or something like that. Oh well.

giantg2 4y ago
I imagine that sort of reward would not take place today.
- sumthinprofound 4y ago
  In high school teachers would take me to their house on my lunch break to fix their home computer then buy me a steak and cheese on the way back to school. Definitely some red flags there.
  - SoftTalker 4y ago
    When I was about 15 (this was in the 1980s) I had been hanging out at a local computer shop, trying to figure out what I might want to buy for my hard-earned paper route and lawn-mowing money. The shop owner, who I would guess was in his 30s, offered to drive me to the next larger city to look at some stuff that he could not get for some reason. On the way there (or maybe on the way back) he took me to White Castle for food. We didn't have a White Castle and he really liked their food. I guess you might say there were red flags there, but he didn't do anything remotely weird, then or later. He was apparently just wanting to help out a kid who was interested in the same stuff he was. Nowadays I don't think anyone would dare.
- me_me_mu_mu 4y ago
  Teacher will buy a NFT or Fortnite skin

ars 4y ago

Sears and K-Mart are working on it: https://brostocks.com/2021/11/20/how-many-sears-stores-are-left/ https://brostocks.com/2021/11/20/how-many-sears-stores-are-l... and https://brostocks.com/2022/04/28/how-many-kmarts-are-left-in-the-united-states/ https://brostocks.com/2022/04/28/how-many-kmarts-are-left-in...

lapetitejort 4y ago
Somewhat related, I know of a Woolworth's that has been untouched since its closing in the 90s in a tourist city somewhere on the East Coast. I toured it by myself after a store owner friend gave me a key to the basement. I wanted to enjoy it more, but the constant dread of getting caught overwhelmed the fascination of this thirty year old time capsule.
- moistly 4y ago
  Last time I was there, there was a Woolworth’s in Puerto Vallarta old town. Quite the surprise!

WorldPeas 4y ago

I guess that location they opened in space back in 2001 really bankrupted them

tuckerpo 4y ago

I visited Lake George at the end of 2021 and the Howard Johnson restaurant was a tourist attraction, for some reason. Bummer to see it die.

O__________O 4y ago

Property is now listed for the unlikely price of $10... :) https://exitrealtyempireassociates.com/listing/nyenyrmls202131243/2143_ROUTE_9__Lake_George__NY_12845/of-2898 https://exitrealtyempireassociates.com/listing/nyenyrmls2021...

iod 4y ago
Per the article, it's $10 per foot² of space leased. So I am guessing that to lease the whole place it would therefore be 7500ft² * $10-per-ft²-per-year / 12 months-per-year = $6250/month .

mooreds 4y ago

Here's a website devoted to Howard Johnsons: http://www.hojoland.com/ http://www.hojoland.com/

fredcy 4y ago

Going to the Howard Johnson's (in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) in the late 60's was a big treat for my family. Their fried clams were exotic fare.

LeoPanthera 4y ago

I guess they will not be able to open the "Howard Johnson's Earthlight Room" on an orbiting space station as predicted by 2001: A Space Odyssey, after all. https://georgehahn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2001-space-station-large.jpg https://georgehahn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2001-space... (The "Bell System Picturephone" is also looking pretty unlikely.)

B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
(Watched the original Kubrick movie when it was released. Thumb my nose at StarWars peasants ;-) Ah, well, the future isn't what it used to be. At least we didn't get nuked yet, a distinct possibility at the time.
- russellendicott 4y ago
  In my teens I spent a whole paycheck on the Stanley Kubrick DVD box set. In hindsight this was dumb but then again all of the films are amazing. The set: Stanley Kubrick Collection (Lolita / Dr. Strangelove / 2001: A Space Odyssey / A Clockwork Orange / Barry Lyndon / The Shining / Full Metal Jacket) https://www.amazon.com/dp/6305440093/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_4XQ999X4XZC1T0K6HY3N?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/6305440093/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_4XQ9...
  - euroderf 4y ago
    Be sure to check his old B&W film about the racetrack heist.
sritchie 4y ago
Wait, the Bell Picturephone was real! https://ethw.org/Picturephone https://ethw.org/Picturephone I had known for years that my grandpa Alistair Ritchie worked on this at the Labs, but the book “The Idea Factory” colored in the story with great detail on how advanced the system was AND how few units they ever sold. Everyone wanted to see the other party, but no one wanted to be broadcast. One Bell exec iirc planted a headshot of himself in front of the camera.

hojothrowaway 4y ago

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throw7 4y ago
Thank you for sharing. Wish I could say I had a story to share, but I lived a pretty sheltered youth. I do remember it being called "Ho Joes" by everyone back then.
Dracophoenix 4y ago
If you wouldn't mind my asking, do you happen to know where HoJos sourced its ice cream from? Did HoJos really make those 28 flavors or simply slap a label on some other creamery's work? Also, if you can you should totally do a Reddit AMA. It's stories like your grandfather's I find interesting.
- boomboomsubban 4y ago
  From reading the Wikipedia article, at least in the 60's they made them and the recipe's recently sold on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/374001062181?nma=true&si=uMabXVBJXpwvmkGXfToIJMqLn2w%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 https://www.ebay.com/itm/374001062181?nma=true&si=uMabXVBJXp...

russdill 4y ago

Now, finally, the other Howard Johnson of high speed digital design fame can get his due.

runnr_az 4y ago

It’ll be back as a ghost kitchen

sizzzzlerz 4y ago

Back in the 60's, our family took extensive road trips during summer vacation, our dad taking the tribe on cross-country adventures towing a vacation trailer behind our Travelall. Two things I remember seeing all over the country were a Stuckey's restaurant/store and Howard Johnson's. Being kids, we would constantly whine about stopping at them when we passed by but we never did. Since we stayed in the trailer, we didn't need hotel rooms, and we generally ate our meals in the trailer, as well. Now, they're just dusty memories of those idyllic times long ago.

me_me_mu_mu 4y ago
Thanks for sharing, enjoyed reading about your perspective.

chiefalchemist 4y ago

Hopefully The History Channel will add a chapter to "The Food That Built America."

lesgobrandon 4y ago

shagie 4y ago

I've got trouble placing a year on this, it was the early 80s. Lets call it '82 or '83 (I remember Burger Time video game). My grandparents took me to Washington DC and due to a mix up with the reservations for hotel rooms, the travel agency put us in the Watergate Hotel. For an about 10 year old, the hotel restaurant at the Watergate was a bit too fancy. Across the street (looking at Google maps - and https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9000541,-77.0557682,3a,68.9y,31.24h,93.2t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1stQ5JMiEJ5TnHQxlnXuS9Wg!2e0!5s20070801T000000!7i3328!8i1664 https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9000541,-77.0557682,3a,68.9y... looks about right), was a Howard Johnsons which was indeed a place where a 10 year old boy could get food without problem. (later edit: yep - that's it - https://www.flickr.com/photos/edge_and_corner_wear/9728171994 https://www.flickr.com/photos/edge_and_corner_wear/972817199... ) The food that I likely wouldn't have ate (as a picky eater) but my grandmother had me try before she told me what they were was the fried clams. https://www.thefooddictator.com/howard-johnsons-fried-clams/ https://www.thefooddictator.com/howard-johnsons-fried-clams/ I turned out I actually liked them and so had them each time I went there on that trip. https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2016/09/30/howard-johnsons-fried-clams https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2016/09/30/howard-johnso... An article about that last Howard Johnsons - https://www.eater.com/2017/2/14/14601970/last-howard-johnsons-lake-george-new-york https://www.eater.com/2017/2/14/14601970/last-howard-johnson... From that article... > There are some days, like when a previous Howard Johnson’s owner drives to Lake George just to shake LaRock’s hand and wish him luck, or when a couple arrive from New Jersey just to eat fried clams at a linoleum HoJo’s counter again, when none of that feels important. There are other days, however, when LaRock tries to predict the weather while waiting for tour buses full of French-Canadians, and in those moments, and it feels like he is the captain, first mate, and chief steward of a ship that’s already sunk.

MisterBastahrd 4y ago

I vividly remember the first time I was spoiled by a family member at a restaurant. I was 8 years old, in Houston to go to Astroworld, and over the protests of my parents, my grandmother bought me a large chocolate shake at a Howard Johnson's. I had never been in a restaurant with actual tables to sit down and eat before, and I wouldn't experience it again until I was being honored by the plant manager at my dad's employer my senior year of high school for receiving a national merit scholarship.

2b3a51 4y ago
Your memory has got me thinking. Eating out wasn't common in my childhood in the 1960s in the UK. My memories of sit-down meals at locations outside the house are mainly the Christmas dinners that the Marconi Marine branch in Liverpool organised for employees, and the summer trips that sort of happened based at school (double decker buses arrived, took us all out to somewhere like Blackpool or Loggerheads in Wales, and there was always a fish and chip sitdown when it was time to come back). And school dinners of course after around 1970 when I went to the big school which was further away. Things opened up a bit in the 1970s and 1980s. I think it is a reflection of growing real disposable income, more restaurants and the cheaper chains opening.

jhallenworld 4y ago

Here is a nice nostalgic video about them: "Howard Johnson Restaurants - Life in America" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbNvT0vxrzM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbNvT0vxrzM

beebeepka 4y ago

Huh. I've only heard of this chain in Futurama. Next you'll tell me Fishy Joe's real as well